


Hercules

by A_dot_Gab



Series: Only Sane Man AU [5]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Anxiety, I'm so tired, Mental Health Issues, Multi, Other, caretaker!Mulligan, manic-depressive, please make me go to sleep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-05
Updated: 2016-06-05
Packaged: 2018-07-12 12:22:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7103203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_dot_Gab/pseuds/A_dot_Gab
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An in-universe focus on Hercules</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I think this is it y'all. I'm shutting down this universe. Thank you for being so patient with me. I sincerely hope you enjoy.

Ever since he could speak coherently, everyone believed Hercules would be a nurse. His first full sentence was ‘ _ Are you ok? _ ’. His first reaction to someone getting hurt on the playground was to soothe them as best he could and call for someone to get the teacher. By third grade, he was carrying band-aids and wipes in his pockets so he could ‘start treatment’ on any minor cuts and scrapes before a teacher or nurse arrived.

 

In eighth grade, Hercules meets an awkward, lanky French kid. They teach him about gender one day while he patches up their knee and palm after a painful tumble in the P.E. field into a rock patch. It’s the start of a long-lasting relationship. Lafayette, as Hercules now knows them, requires more band-aids than Hercules could ever hope to keep track of. And they are picky, always wanting themed ones as opposed to regular ones. Hercules obliges.

 

By winter break, the pair is the most inseparable duo in school. Hercules teaches Lafayette how to work with their body until they grow into it, and how to patch themselves up on the rare occasion he isn’t around. It saves them a lot of pain, and Hercules some band-aids. Lafayette teaches Hercules about fashion design (and perhaps he’ll pursue that instead of nursing) and mental illness.

  
This isn’t to say Hercules is completely clueless, he’s heard some basics, but he certainly doesn’t know what to do when a loud bang from outside their house triggers Lafayette and Hercules has to use the goddamn symptom checker on WebMD to figure out it’s that it’s an anxiety attack and he needs to help Laf calm down. It takes a couple weeks for Hercules to get good at helping Laf, reminding them to take their meds and helping them stave off attacks before they start, but he masters the necessary skills quickly, aided by Lafayette’s sudden forthrightness about their past experiences. Sometimes the pair struggles, but they struggle together. Until they don’t. Two days into the summer, Lafayette disappears. A week after, he gets a letter telling him all the details Laf never did, with instructions to burn it after reading for his friend’s safety. He complies.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The text generator wasn't working correctly. I played with multiple ones for the better part of an hour (perhaps longer) before I gave up.

Hercules is a senior in high school, Columbia bound, when he gets the text.

**+33 0589315529** :  _ Hercules? Mon ami? Is this your number still? I know we have not spoken for years. Je suis desole. I vanished on you. But I still remember you as one of my closest friends. I will be at Columbia in the summer, with another good friend. I think you would like mon petit lion. We should make a group chat. And perhaps I can come visit you? _

 

Hercules can’t believe his luck. The best friend he’s made in years disappears suddenly only to return to his life right before he leaves for college. He’s not sure how to feel about the entire thing, but goes with elation and responds to Lafayette with his similar summer plans. After some catching up, they talk as though they were never apart.

 

Over the next couple of weeks, Lafayette starts the suggested group chat, and Hercules and Alexander become good friends as well. The trio often talk over the phone, or Skype, when Lafayette is allowed and Alex can find some privacy. Hercules finds himself often checking in on both of them when they’ve not spoken for longer than he is comfortable with.

 

All three of them arrive on campus for summer semester. They’ve requested a triple room, which the school provides, and from there it’s quite the ride. Hercules becomes the mother hen of the room. Taking care of Laf much like he used, too. Taking care of Alex, too, especially on his less stable days, when he is mid-swing from mania to depression, or vice versa. To anyone else it would be a chore, but Hercules loves them too much to ever find them a hassle. Somewhere in the mess that they are, they get their work done.

 

The friendship becomes deeper with each passing day. Alex opens up to the others, lets them help him. Writes them poetry and treatises and essays about why they’re the best people on earth. Laf is more tactile than ever, sprawling gracefully across anyone who is seated or lying down instead of finding their own spot. Hercules gives his hugs more freely, patches their wounds, both physical and mental, with a tenderness reserved for those closest to his heart.

 

It is Alex who asks them first. “Be my queerplatonic partners?” he says, one lazy, overly hot day. Hercules is a little confused, but after a quick clarification on what queerplatonic means, he happily agrees to be queerplatonic partners with both Laf and Alex. The three of them are happy.

  
Summer comes to a close, and the fall semester kids start trickling in. Lafayette moves into a new dorm nearby. Hercules and Alex have decided that if this new roomie guy is a douche, they’ll fight him and move Lafayette back into the summer room with them. As it turns out, the trio need not be concerned. John Laurens turns out to be as good for them as they are for him.


End file.
